It's Zero Waste Week
This is a post of random paragraphs!
Zero Waste Week is an environmental campaign to reduce landfill waste, and takes place annually during the first full week in September. It is a non-commercial grass-roots campaign to demonstrate means and methods to reduce waste, foster community support and bring awareness to the increasing problem of environmental waste and pollution
It started in 2008 from a blog by Rachelle Strauss.
Using the 5 R's............................. Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot, the organisation tries to help schools, businesses and individuals change the way they think. But despite 13 years of promoting the idea I'm not sure things have got any better. There's just as much packaging in supermarkets as there was years ago - if anything - after Covid there's even fewer things unwrapped. AND more packaging is used for all the on-line shopping we do now.
In Suffolk the waste in our grey rubbish bins goes to an incinerator which opened in 2014.
From the East Anglian Daily Times at the time...................................
Every single bag of general refuge from households and businesses in
the county is going to a £180million incinerator plant in Great
Blakenham, near Ipswich – preventing any rubbish going to landfill.
So I guess that means our rubbish isn't rubbish at all - but fuel -is that good?
Our green topped recycling bins are sorted and I hope things are sent off for recycling - who knows? There's also no way of knowing how much stuff is rejected although if what the previous owners here had put in the recycling bin is anything to go by then it's probably quite a lot. Rejected things are added to the rubbish that goes to the incinerator.
I have a brown garden waste bin which costs me £57 a year but it's strictly garden waste only. I brought one 'dalek' compost bin with me which I've been using since moving in, but that will need to sit all winter so fruit and veg scraps will have to go in the general rubbish bin. Maybe that's why, back in March I went mad and bought a new book and I said I'd tell you if it was useful. So................
In 2019, I wrote about reducing plastic HERE . Looking back at that post I can see that not having a cat has reduced my waste. But that's a drastic way to cut waste.
I printed off the chart to fill in for Zero Waste Week. The heading says......... Item, Why am I throwing it away, Improvement, Where will it go.
I might do it just out of interest but won't worry too much about the stuff that goes in the grey (for incineration) bin.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
The book looks interesting (but I'm not sure I like the 'grubby' cover design) It's good that our councils are providing better waste facilities, but as you point out, they are dependent on Joe Public sorting the waste into the right bins.
ReplyDeleteI haven't found much I can use in the book as yet. It's a US publication
DeleteZero Waste 'sounds' like such a good idea but I fear it just scratches at the surface.
ReplyDeleteI recently heard something (Radio 4 I think) where one person was ranting about the number of Britta water filter cartridges being thrown away and "people" should do better. The next person calmly pointed out that if water companies supplied a product that did not taste so foul then the ordinary consumer might not feel compelled to filter their tap water.
Our water from United Utilities has so much chemical in it that most mornings it smells like something out of a swimming pool, and sadly that is why this household contributes to the Britta cartridge problem.
Luckily the water here is drinkable although I've found it's not as good as it was at the cottage and nothing like as good as it was at the smallholding.
DeleteIt's not easy to want to buy unwrapped fresh produce in these days of pandemic. Tesco have minimised their additional packaging for deliveries. Loose produce comes in paper, the only plastic bags are the red ones used for raw meat and fish.
ReplyDeleteI should very much like to know the carbon emissions output from the Ipswich incinerator project.
Hi, this is from their site re: emissions 'Energy-from-waste is a more environmentally sustainable and cost-effective solution for the county’s waste. The facility will save the council at least £350 million over the life of our 25-year contract, compared with landfilling. It also reduces greenhouse gases by 75,000 tonnes a year (according to Environment Agency calculations).'
DeleteThank you Country Cottage for finding that info. I really should have delved deeper and included it in the post. I see you are in Suffolk too - N,S E or West or right in the middle like me!
DeleteHi Sue, I'm about 2 miles from you 😁 Viv
DeleteThank you for that information, Country Cottage. Good to know.
DeleteIn our old house we had three large compost heaps in the garden so all vegetable waste, shredded paper, cardboard etc went in there with the garden waste. Tins, metals and glass went for recycling. Our wheelie bin for collection each week usually only held one small bag of other household rubbish. Here in our temporary home we have to bin a lot of our rubbish now although we can still take glass, metals and papers for recycling. It is very hard after 30 years of having a nearly empty bin.
ReplyDeleteOur council is starting a big bin garden collection with a yearly charge, it's replacing our waste bag which was inclusive in our council tax. I have opted not to have one, we already have 2 huge bins at the front of our house, I did not want a 3rd. We have a hotbin composter, which turns garden waste into compost quicker, only time will tell if it will be all we need. You are so right the plastic packaging is getting worse, some shops have added cardboard, but still then wraps in plastic.
ReplyDeleteWe also have a paid-for garden waste collection, which is useful for woody material and weeds which can't be composted. I'm surprised you have to put food waste in with general rubbish as we have food bins, collected every week. You have to line them with bio-degradable bags which aren't really fit for purpose, as I find I need to use two, one inside the other.
ReplyDeleteNo food waste bins here in Mid Suffolk so far.
DeleteSome interesting things about recycling Sue I know I don't have much in my bin and Tesco are using new little bags for fruit etc.
ReplyDeleteOn Wednesday our topic for WI is recycling - it will be made things from your rubbish which should be interesting also we are asked to wear something GREEN
Hazel c uk 🌈🌈
We had someone from Suffolk C.C Recycling do a talk at WI a few years ago
DeleteAs I was reading your post my mind took a sudden leap back to the 1950s/1960s. For a family of five we had ONE dustbin for All refuse, which included tins, glass (not milk bottles), papers ie newspapers, magazines etc and the bin was NEVER full. A sign of the times perhaps.
ReplyDeleteMy Mum cooked from scratch, my Dad made use of anything, newspapers were used to light the fire and line certain things. I don't remember many food things that were bought in tins and the only thing I can remember that were in jars was jam. Dried fruit and flour was in paper bags, also loose tea. I could go on, but I'll stop here as I've gone on long enough.
When I lived in W Sussex in the 1960's our refuse collection lorry used to tow a small trailer behind it for all the waste paper - so well ahead of the game on recycling there!
DeleteThere was a large paper recycling plant in Norwich in the 1950s and 60s and we used to take our pick-up truck loaded with pig food paper sacks to them. We would receive a few shillings. The family who ran it were well known locally and the plant was big.
DeleteWe have food recycling bins here but not much gets put into ours, we try not to waste food....I don't cook too much, unless I'm purposely doing it for 2 meals or I want the leftovers for making something else out of. I hope there are some things you can do from the book!
ReplyDeleteAh Joan I could have written your reply - same here. My mother would have considered it very bad housekeeping to waste anything. We had some jolly good bread and butter puds made from the crusts with butter, eggs and a handful of raisins.
ReplyDeleteMy town incinerates trash too. Recycling comes with many unknowns. Like you, I recycle using appropriate bins but where it all ultimately goes is still a mystery. As you suggest, packaging could be improved to reduce waste as well.
ReplyDeleteOh dear. I've just sorted out a load of assorted accumulations and put a big bag of old nails, screws, fixing, brackets, door handles, an old lock, and that's not all, in the dustbin for emptying tomorrow. I used to sort out all the metal and take it to the recycling centre, but they make it so difficult to go now I thought well, if they can't be bothered I can't. So it's gone in the bin. There's a load more to follow too when I get round to it.
ReplyDeleteOur local tip/recycling centre is still doing booked online appointments but its easy to do. Metal is worth money too so you could take it to a scrap yard and make a few £
DeleteI like Joan of Devon's comment, as I too can remember a time when only a very small dustbin was collected each week and it contained all of the rubbish for a family of six. There is simply much more packaging around now then there ever was then.
ReplyDeleteI have tried to up my compost game this year so I built a second compost heap. That way I alternate between the two every six months....one getting filled and one rotting down. I am also now tearing up the old bank statements, junk mail etc. To throw in the compost bucket. Compost really does work magic in the garden.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit to liking the 'grubby' look of that book and that leaf is very realistic, I thought you had placed a leaf on your book for an artistic look :-) But the book doesn't sound that good, otherwise it would have had you gripped when you got it.
ReplyDelete